Freed: Jennice Lynch, 19, has been given a suspended sentence after burgling her parents

A middle-class couple who shopped their tearaway daughter to police when she burgled the family home yesterday criticised a judge for sparing her jail.

Ruth and John Lynch hoped 19-year-old Jennice would be sent to prison as a ‘wake-up call’ after years of stealing and poor behaviour.

They said their family were left devastated by their daughter’s betrayal when she raided their £300,000 home three times in just a few weeks, stealing jewellery, including her father’s £4,000 gold watch.

But despite her guilty plea to three counts of burglary, Recorder Kevin Talbot allowed Jennice to walk free with a 22-month suspended sentence.

Last night Mrs Lynch, 45, and her company director husband, John, 46, labelled the punishment a ‘joke’ and said it would not deter Jennice from stealing again.

‘Most people would be ashamed if they behaved this way, but not our daughter,’ Mrs Lynch said.

‘She is uncaring and cold and it’s about time she got severely punished because she needs a wake-up call.

‘The suspended sentence was a joke and she will see this as a reason to do it all again.

The thieving has gone on for donkeys’ years, and going to court was our last resort. We just couldn’t go on.’

Jennice, who is unemployed and lives off benefits, is the couple’s fourth-born of five daughters.

The couple said they have not had problems with any of their other children. One is an accountant, another is a company manager, the third eldest is studying at university to be an engineer while the youngest is still at school.

Family: Ruth Lynch, right, wants her daughter Jennice, second left, to be sent to prison

Targeted: The teenager stole possessions from her own family home, pictured, in Whitworth, Lancashire

Mrs Lynch said problems began at a
young age with Jennice when the couple were asked to move her from a
nursery for being badly behaved.

She had problems throughout school
and aged 14 she allegedly arranged for the family’s Land Rover Discovery
to be stolen after she was scolded by her parents for coming home
drunk.

Mr and Mrs Lynch were so concerned
they moved to Spain with the girls to make a fresh start, but Jennice
failed her GCSEs and her thieving sprees continued.

RELATED ARTICLES

Share this article

Share

At 16, she moved back to England and
began a relationship with a man 20 years older. She went on to have two
children by him, now aged one and two.

Mrs Lynch said the couple came back
to England after being told by social services their daughter was
pregnant. She added that they have always supported her financially,
looked after her children and even paid a deposit for her flat, which
she trashed.

Tearaway: The teenage mother's parents begged for her to be jailed to protect other people

Despair: Mrs Lynch says, 'It's about time she got severely punished, because she needs a wake-up call'

‘She will probably be as proud as
punch at having her 15 minutes of fame in court,’ Mrs Lynch said. ‘I bet
she will even cut out any newspaper clippings and stick them on her
wall.’

A former school governor, Mrs Lynch
added: ‘As a parent you always want the best for your kids, we don’t
push them to be something supersonic, it is more a case of being happy
and getting on in life.

‘For us, getting the police involved
was very much a last resort. I was hoping prison might nip it in the
bud.’ Burnley Crown Court was told that the burglaries began on October 5
last year when Jennice broke into the couple’s home, in Whitworth,
Lancashire, and stole a gold and diamond bracelet.

Just over a fortnight later, Jennice
smashed a toilet window and stole 14 cartons of cigarettes, before the
final burglary on November 30 when she smashed a patio door with a
brick, showering her own children’s toys with glass, before stealing Mr
Lynch’s 18-carat gold watch.

In police interviews Jennice claimed
she had carried out one of the raids because her mother had ignored her
and given her a ‘dirty look’ earlier in the day.

Well-off: The family's four other daughters have all embarked on professional careers

Nick Dearing, defending, told the court that Jennice was a ‘deeply troubled and traumatised young lady’.

‘She has hurt those closest to her
for what she believes are perceived personal slights and a lack of
support from her mother,’ he said.

Sentencing Jennice to 22 months’
youth custody, suspended for two years, the judge said: ‘Your behaviour
has been mean, spiteful, motivated by malice and caused an enormous
amount of distress.

'You have made judgments about your parents and you
have done that for reasons which are, frankly, difficult to understand.

‘These were cunning, well-planned and skilfully carried out burglaries.

'You were engaged in acts really calculated, and it seems deliberately intended to hurt and hurt it did.’

He also served her with a 12-month exclusion order, banning her from going within 200 metres of her parents’ home.

Last night Jennice, who has been
living at a shelter for homeless teenagers, in Rawtenstall, Lancashire,
could not be contacted for comment.